Consumers have an ever-increasing array of options for consuming media content, in terms of the types of media content (e.g., video, audio, text, etc.), providers of the media content, and devices for consuming the media content. Media content providers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and effective at providing media content quickly and reliably to consumers.
Some media content can be “live streamed” in which media content covering an event (e.g., sales pitch, infomercial, sports game, news, etc.) is delivered live over the Internet. Often, viewers of the live streamed media content can interact with each other using a live chat. Unfortunately, the playback of the media content and the presentation of the chat compete for the same bandwidth and hardware resources of a viewer's device, resulting in degradation of the playback of the media content.